Thirteen tri-town baseball players recently returned home from “living the dream,” competing in a national baseball tournament in New York.

Members of the Buzzards Bay Baseball Team (“B3”), as well as Head Coach Jared Maxwell and coaches Al Marsden, Mike Smead and Lenny Coppola, spent the week of August 12 in Oneonta, New York. The teammates were at the Cooperstown Dreams Park to compete in the 2017 American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament. The tournament began with opening ceremonies that included skydivers who landed on the field.

B3 began the tournament by playing against a notable team — the Mid-Atlantic Shockers. The team, from Maryland, was coached by the son of former Red Sox player Trot Nixon. B3 lost to the team, who would eventually make it all the way to the championship game before losing. Team B3 themselves faced off against teams from Texas and California and prevailed. The team made it to the playoffs on Wednesday, August 16, ranked 60th of 104 teams. The team won the first playoff game they participated in, but lost the second, ending their run in the tournament with an overall record of 4-4.

The loss was not in vain though. During the tournament, players hit multiple home runs and grand slams, some for the first time.

The week ended with closing ceremonies, which included fireworks and the championship game.

The B3 team was made up of 13 players from the tri-town area: Landon Maxwell, Alec Marsden, Damon Smead and Markus Pierre are from Marion. Jared Asiaf, Ryan Coppola and Will Correia represented Mattapoisett, while Owen Cassidy, Chris Feeney, Ethan Kennewick, Brady Dias, Ryan Silva and Noah Sommers hail from Rochester.